


Bridges Fall, And So Do Wayward Brothers

by bachtoreality



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Comics), Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 11:33:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15436155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bachtoreality/pseuds/bachtoreality
Summary: Thor smiles, a beautiful thing that like all else in this current timeline had been torn apart and reconstituted through artificial means.“You came back to me.” Thor embraces him, his lips warm.“Yes, I did. From Hel.” Loki grabs him with shaking hands, movements clumsy.





	Bridges Fall, And So Do Wayward Brothers

Loki tries, oh dear Gods does he try. Especially now during an important meeting with Thor on one side, his body close and warm- and Brunhilde on the other her head leaning on a lazy arm as she blinks slowly with disinterest- does he find it entirely too difficult to stay awake. Generally this is the kind of setting he is best in. The political side of things, but now his behavior has become entirely too much like his brother. All brutish inattentiveness.

Loki sighs and shifts in his seat and is immediately leveled with a stare, something from Thor that tells him he ought to be listening to the panel of Earth ambassadors. He is just too bored of the circular, neverending discussions about probationary sentences, refugee status, so on and so forth. It takes everything within him not to yawn. He has known since he first boarded this ship he would not be there when it touched down on Earth. As he watches Brunhilde drool into her open hand he realizes he is not alone.

The transmission ends with Thor making promises and amends to world leaders that Loki vaguely recognizes. Not everyone came back after Thanos's universal cleanse, it was a wonder he did. He remembered dying, but not traveling to Hel. After all, Hel no longer was a place considering what they did to Hela. He had escaped the after life relatively easy in time to see half of known life disappear. Coming back from death was easy, coming back after being wiped from existence was completely different.

He remembered the misty vale that awaited him, of the souls floating aimlessly, with no God to control them. He saw his father, a miser of his usual self lying in a tepid pool with a questioning look in his eye. How he thought he would not end up here, how a wise king could only ascend. That he were beyond judgement. Any other context it would have marked Loki as darkly humorous. Now he could only watch as the Allfather sank into the shallow pools. He reaches into the water to grab him only to be left with black and silver silt mucking into drops of dew off of his hand.

Even without Hela, this world of death was still a land of unpolished mirrors that reflected what spirits they could hold.

He climbed the blackened rickety bridge to the worlds above, the last vestiges of magic that had allowed Hela to escape. There were no guards, there were no dead to stop him. Only step by step by step until he could not remember any more how long it had been. He found himself passing the black void of Asgard, until he climbed to Alfheim. A world where he had died before. He felt his magic grow stronger and he found it easy to transport himself to every world he knew and found each of them desolate, with roaming populations carrying the burdens of the many dead. It didn't take long before Thor found him. All sorrowful joy at his survival. His arms were a stone weight against the backdrop of the billions gone. He knew Thanos, he knew his idealism was a front, an excuse for a man obsessed with control- that no Lord of a dominion would be satisfied by a universe culled, but only by universe bowing at his feet.

It took time, effort and a million different scenarios but they toppled Thanos- the glove removed by death after death. Danvers was the only choice, the only one who could possibly have wielded it without blinking out of existence. Thanos screamed, spouted on about the heat death of the universe but even that ended with a resounding pop as he disappeared. The months that went without half of the universe present, the months spent mourning were nothing compared to the seconds when everyone was brought back- with a literal snap of her fingers.

Well, almost everybody.

There were a few thousand Asgardians who survived the destruction of Asgard.

Now there were only a few dozen, dead long before the cataclysm.

He had offered to mount an escape, to rescue the many listless dead from Hel, but Thor would not hear it.

“Whoever is there, belongs there.” Thor spoke, his usual black and white judgement infuriating.

“Father was there, Thor.” Loki whispered, eyes down.

“Lies-”

“Why would I lie? What good does lying do me? After all that happened!”

“Exactly. I know Earth was the last place you came to, the last place you looked for. I wasn't the one you wanted to find. You would've been happy to eek out your existence elsewhere in a lazy, immoral way.”

“And so what if I had? I am not talking about myself, I am talking about your people!”

“But not yours, no. The second we leave you will run off, find another place. Another world where...”

“Where what?”

Thor is silent after that, but Loki already knows.

Where Thor can't protect him.

“It's not like you could before anyways.” The words are black, bitter and rip out of Loki's throat as he storms out of the room.

 

Loki left his quarters in the night, or what resembled night on the huge interstellar vessel that the Nova Corps had lent them as an act of charity, their last vessel hopelessly destroyed. Mostly it was when the watch nodded off and the others tired themselves from the busywork of ship life. A perfect manner of ignoring their almost complete genocide.

 

He's in front of the hangar when he hears a voice.

“I would stop you, but I kind of want to join you.” Brunhilde is sitting at a table, a bottle in hand.

“Feel free, then. It's easier to man a ship with two people.” Loki says, his voice barely tremoring from concealed shock.

“Yes, but you don't work well with others.”

Loki responds with a smile, “I've heard that before.”

“Mhm, which is why you ought to go off on your own.”

“And why would you want that?”

“Because it means we'll chase you and I won't get stuck in another shitty meeting for the next week or so.”

“Now I'm genuinely wishing you would come with me.”  
“And why is that?”

“Because it'll make him even angrier.”

Brunhilde smiles, a bright mischievous knowing thing.

“That's what you want, isn't it?” It comes maniacal, with laughter that follows.

“To annoy and pester his highness, yes. Sometimes even fatally so.”

“Nah, I mean you want him to pay attention to you. So you want to act out and get him to come after you like old times.”

“I'd hardly say he went after me. He did leave me to rot in outer space. And in prison. And there was that time he literally left me to rot dead without a grave on an alien planet. Twice, mind you.”

“Oh I was there for the last one. Pretty sure his ass had no time for a funeral. Being whisked away on the rainbow arch, after all.”

“It's all the same. Each time I've found myself exiled and dead with only myself to find the way back.”

“To him.”

“Not intentionally.” The frown on Loki's face deepened.

“It is by legend that we cross paths until one of us forges the other's doom in wrought malice.”

“Then you're leaving to prevent that.”

Loki is silent. He wasn't sure about whether he wanted to go down that path. Something always brought them together, but he always tore them apart. Through mischief, through lies. He needed to leave that space open. This past year, the progress they had made was only temporary. He knew it. There was the itching in his head that he would have called boredom, but he knew to be doubt.

Hela and Odin were an unstoppable force together, destroying all in their paths. How much death did they cause before Odin came to his senses; that a king who governs corpses is a king in name only. Like a child playing with fetid dolls.

“If I stay we will only guarantee the mutual destruction of all the realms.”

“Who says that?”

“Prophecy, religious texts, and most of our interactions.”

“Have you ever heard of self fulfilling prophecies?”

“Where one knows the worst outcome, anticipates and therefore initiates it? Yes. It's a simple concept.”

“You're a textbook example. Someone who his entire life has been told he's meant to be evil and so you have done so. If anything you're self conscious about not being hated.”

“That's an oversimplification.”

“You want to be loved, but not as who you are. You have to put illusions, tricks, or titles in the way. Acceptance is only provided with power in your book.”

“Is that wrong?”

“Yes, or at least in this case. You aren't being accepted because you demand it be conditional. I'm not sure how things used to be, but even someone like me- who believe me hardly gives half a shit- can see he desperately wants you to be the self- the true self- that he can accept. Find Thor and go to him. Figure this shit out. I don't want to have to spill it to him first.” As she finishes her speech Valkyrie leaves him with one last stern look.

“What?” Loki says, his voice defeated.

“If I can say that and leave behind the one possible escape from this circus of tedium then you should probably take my advice seriously.”

With that Loki is alone again in the drafty hangar, escape pods and accessory ships looming over him with impending mass.

 

The walk to Thor's quarters is not a short one and it leaves him to ruminate.

By the time he reaches the tall, narrow door he is fighting himself to just leave. It is the same door that when they had first arrived Thor had tried to simply smash through with armor and cape on. It had ended with him very impressively falling back- a loud surprised grunt and thud rousing the other Asgardians on the hall. Loki had found out about it second hand from Valkyrie, his presence being needed in the make shift sick bay that had originally been a battle ready room. There were still posters from the Nova Corps, a man wearing a shining gold jumpsuit and smiling to a dying, wounded audience. It had been the first non essential thing he had done- to rip it off of the wall.

 

They may not be war mongers, but their inessential readiness for it left a bitter taste in his mouth. The anticipation for battle the last thing anyone on the ship needed. Except for Thor and Valkyrie, the last of the soldiers who in a perfect universe would die on the battlefield beaten and bruised, bleeding for all to take in the glory. It makes Loki's skin crawl.

Take him back a few years past and he would have agreed. Not anymore. Not while he can still feel the phantom pains shooting. From his collar bone to his nape, his hand sits on the base of his neck as Thor opens the door before he gets the chance to knock.

 

Thor fixes him with a smile that then fades to confusion and rests on a suspicious frown.

“What did you do?” The accusation would be comical in a different circumstance.

“I did not do anything, that's the problem.” Is Loki's response, annoyed with the implication.

“Wha-”

“I was going to jump ship.”

“I knew it- I couldn't trust-”

“I didn't do it and I don't plan to.” Loki interrupts him. Thor's demeanor changes from hostile to confused once more.

“But why? I know you're bored here. That you are unsure about how you will be received...”

“Because I can not be that person anymore. I climbed through the many worlds to get back here.” The 'to you' remained unspoken, but it lingered with their silence.

Thor looked pained, fearful of what he may say next.

“I need you-” he is interrupted by a wall of warmth. Thor is holding him in a deep embrace and it shocks him into silence.

The warmth lingers too long. Loki forces the words out, “I need you to know that I did not steal the tesseract for my own good. I thought it would be a way to save us, a bargaining chip we so desperately needed. I never-”

Thor covers his mouth with an impossibly hot hand, stopping him mid sentence.

“I have loved you brother for many years, beyond what is respectable. I find it impossible to loathe you, but I find myself disappointed. I can not hate you. And after everything that has happened I can not possibly lose you again. If you were to fall back down into Hel again might you be met with a nothingness and never climb back out? What would become of you then?”

“Perhaps it is for the best.” It comes out before he can stop it, the truth bitter and soft off his tongue.

Thor growls, something broken slipping through him.

Loki finds himself pinned to the wall, his back straining against metal. He does nothing to release himself. He is all too aware of how much stronger his brother is.

Instead he speaks, already in too deep to care.

“If I were dead you could live in peace, with a people who love you. Instead you live with a black spot that you intend to allow some control over your rule. Perhaps we should have never reunited. I should have stayed in that frozen mist.”

“Why must you always leave?” The question is quiet, through hoarse whisper.

“Because I do not belong here.”

“That's not what my heart tells me, what my mind screams at me to do. It tells me to bind you, to break you so you don't leave. It is something I had never thought, nor wanted to think. Such cruelties. Even now as I feel you so close, I just wish to hold you ever closer.” Thor is speaking into his ear, all hot air and the barest touch of hair. It makes Loki shiver, a small gasp escaping.

The closeness had taken it's toll on him, his cock hard and present against Thor's hip. He closes his eyes at the cocky, hopeful look in his brother's face.

It leaves Loki one recourse. He does not so much stab his brother as he lightly pricks his lower abdomen, the one where he has him pinned with a short dagger. It is enough to shift the balance of the pin and Loki uses the opportunity to afford himself space. Thor tries to push him back, but he finds himself grabbing air.

“I appreciate the sentiment. Hell, I might even return it. That does not change that me being here only makes things harder for you.”

Thor looks back at him, his hands fists on the wall where he had Loki pinned. Anger is breaking his beautiful face into splintered rage.

“Then I am willing to face the consequences.”

“As brothers, or as something more?”

“As anything I can get.” It is a finality. Thor reaches out to him and hums with pleasure as he is met with no quarrel.

“You may have me. But I will not be a concubine.”

“What, then?” The statement is an exploration, but mostly a joke.

“I want my freedom.”

“You will be free.”

“To be by your side. What if hearts change, as they often do?”

The grip tightens, a spark seems to flicker through blue eyes.

“Then despite my own harsh wants, you will be free.”

Loki studies Thor's face, looking for affirmation. All he sees is a terrifying need, dark with desperation. It is not like what had been there before. The feeling of amiability tinged with lust, but not the need to claim. Only to control, much in the nature of familial or judicial control. However, now was a different story. Having lost again and again to watch death after death, the usual optimistic if not cock sure essence of being had been replaced with something akin to tyrannical.

“One can only hope that you learn to lie better in the realm of politics.” The joke is said through a smirk.

Thor smiles, a beautiful thing that like all else in this current timeline had been torn apart and reconstituted through artificial means.

“You came back to me.” Thor embraces him, his lips warm.

“Yes, I did. From Hel.” Loki grabs him with shaking hands, movements clumsy.

  
  
  
  
  


 


End file.
